Visit to Telperion Farms - Bonsai Tonight

Plants love Oregon – 100 wholesale nurseries can’t be wrong. Many of these nurseries focus on conifers – and at least one grows bonsai exclusively: Telperion Farms.

Chris and Lisa Kirk started Telperion Farms on 100 acres east of Salem, Oregon. Numerous growing fields support pines, maples and junipers while less common varieties including hornbeam, quince and ume, fill many more. The Kirks also grow over 90 varieties of satsuki azalea.

The Kirks are among the nicest people in the business and they’re doing a great job with their trees. Gary Wood contributes at Telperion as well, bringing his great horticultural knowledge to bear.

You can get trees from the Kirks at a variety of bonsai events in the west, by ordering trees online, or by visiting the nursery in person. I recommend the latter – it’s great to see the trees up close!

Chris Kirk and company

Most growing fields are covered with weed cloth to simplify maintenance. The trees are planted in root pots to simplify transplanting.

Black pines

The Kirks aren’t afraid to rely on sacrifice branches to thicken trunks. By letting trees run for several years, they get incredible growth in a short amount of time.

Eric Schrader among the pines

Up close, it’s easy to see the low growth that has been preserved to help with future primary branching.

Black pine

I can’t imagine how much labor it takes to keep up field after field of trees, but I can say that it sounds like fun – especially when the trees grow so quickly.